Spanish Hearts
by thatmitchsentho
Summary: Most of the time the things that last start with something simple.


The first time Santana Lopez met Brittany Pierce they were sitting in Freshman Spanish. Santana didn't need to take Spanish, she was fluent, but figured the easy A would allow for some slipping in subjects if it happened. Like math. She was sitting next to Brittany, who she didn't know much about, just that they were both Cheerios, which would be enough to cement them into friendship, because Cheerios only ever hung out with each other.

The teacher was droning on and on about the male o and the female a, and Santana noticed the blonde was concentrating very hard on taking notes. She sat up a bit straighter and saw that the notes largely consisted of hearts, rainbows, cats and unicorns scribbled in the margin of an otherwise blank page. The look on her face was just as blank.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Not learning Spanish," Brittany whispered back. "If I'd known Spanish was two different languages, I would have taken something easy. Maybe Chemistry."

"It's not two languages," Santana said. "I can help you if you like."

"Do you know Spanish? Because I think it's really hard."

"My name is Santana Lopez, Brittany. Of course I know Spanish. And I'll make it easy, not like this vest-wearing douche is doing," she said. Brittany beamed a radiant smile, and Santana felt her heart skip. Brittany took her hand and began drawing hearts on the inside of her wrist. Santana let her, because she didn't need to pay attention, and the blonde's fingertips were the very best distraction.

Brittany got a B+ in Spanish freshman year, because spelling still counts in Spanish, but she was elated because she'd never gotten any letter with a plus sign before. Santana got a best friend, which seemed like a great trade off since she never really had one of those before.

Somewhere during the year they became inseparable, and Santana decided that the feelings she was having for Brittany were not really friend-type feelings. She presented her best 'friend' with a necklace that bore a charm in the shape of a heart, which Brittany loved and wore all the time, around her neck or double draped around her ankle. And when rumours started to fly that the two of them were maybe more than friends, Brittany didn't stop taking Santana's hand and drawing hearts on the inside of her wrist, and Santana didn't stop signing her notes with a heart. But she minded, a little, that people talked, because they didn't know.

People came between them, as they tend to do, and Santana hated to admit that she missed the blonde. She'd see Brittany holding hands with Artie, kissing him even, and would unconsciously touch her wrist, the same place where the fingers in Artie's hair had drawn hearts over and over, during Spanish, during homework, during their doing nothing on the couch. She tried with Sam, with Puck, and it felt like nothing because it wasn't Brittany.

Then came senior year, and the two of them were finally single together and together together, and Santana didn't care about the rumours any more, because they were fact. She could leave a heart drawn on Brittany's locker with lipstick if she wanted to.

Twelve months later they were sitting on the couch in their own little apartment, and Santana looked up from her laptop to see Brittany poring over a textbook, taking notes. She leaned over to see the progress Brittany was making on the history paper she was working on. The page was filled with hearts, rainbows, cats and unicorns.

"Britt," Santana said, smiling to herself, "What are you doing?"

"Not writing a paper on Constitutional changes after World War II," she said.

"Can I help you?" Santana offered. "I'm almost done with this biology work."

"It's not like Spanish," Brittany said.

"You'd be surprised," Santana said. "I've been told my methods stick pretty well." Brittany took her hand, and began tracing the tattooed heart Santana had gotten inked there. The heart had been there for years anyway, to her, so she figured it made sense it permanent as soon as she could.

"Heart," Brittany said, "Corazon."

"See," Santana said. "I can get you through Spanish, who's to say I can't get you through Constitutional History 101? You can do this, remember you thought you wouldn't even get into college?"

"I know I can do this," Brittany said, "Because with you sitting there, I could probably write anything." She pulled Santana's wrist to her lips and kissed it softly. Santana smiled back as Brittany picked up her pen and traded the cats and hearts for words.


End file.
